The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-11-21
THE .oAUsg. TO BE "vINp1cArBD."

Dc OOno Oy.
THE "oAUsE" TO BE "VINDICATBD."
A movement is on foot in the South to
raise sum of money for the benefit of jeff
Davis and family. a committee has been
appointed. and an appeal has been made to the
people of the State Of Georgia, at least.
Whether it is to extend to the balance of '.the
Confederate States"-to use President Cleve-
lands official language-does not clearly ap-
pear. Mr.. Davis indicated some time since
that he would decline to receive the money
for his own personal use-though that would
be remarkable piece of self-abnegation in
one who acquired home in the way he did
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES the Charleston News
and Courier says:
"If Mr.. Davis is of the same mind, and
will accept nothing for himself. it will still be
practicable to commemorate his confederate
services and his confederate primacy. AS
was suggested last Sunday the issue of an
edition of 1.-The Rise and Fall of the Con-
federate Government at a price that would
bring it within the reach of every man. wom-
and child in the country, would be a mon
ument more enduring than bronze. It would
worthily commemorate the leader. in justify
ing and vindicating the cause of which he
foremost exponent"
Here goes the rebel flag and the bloody
shirt again. The News and Courier wants
the "cause' of which che was the foremost
exponent justified" and "vindicated."
What was that ''cause?" Let US hear an au-
thoritative exposition. Was it human
slavery, as Alexander 81. Stephens said it
was. If SO, is that "cause" to be Justified
and vindicatedP" Was it the doctrine of
| State sovereignty, and the right of a State to
! withdraw at will from the compact of Union7
If so, as Mr.. jeff Davis says, is that "cause"
to be Justified" and "vindicatedl" What is
the cause that is to be vindicatedg But
whatever it is, the ''vindication" and "iusti-
fcation" must be the reversal by history of
the decision of the war. The war decided
that the "cause" of the South was wrong
and the effort now is to ''vindicate" that
cause, and have it made to appear to the
present and to the future as right cause.
temporarily defeated by virtue Of superior
numbers alone, and by the fortunes of war.
That is the struggle of the South to-day. It
| is a struggle to which its leading an d
| newspapers committing themselves with
all their ability and power. 1t is a struggle
in which they have the sympathy of the
Democratic party organization of the North,
as they had before they inaugurated the war
of rebellion. 1t is struggle in which they
have the sympathy and the support of the
present Democratic national administration,
e
throughout the years when they were pre-
pairing for the secession movement of 1861.
There is use in trying to blink the facts.
or for mugwumps and chalk-faces to cry
peace when there is no peace. The South
does not propose to allow the verdict of the
war to stand. It does not propose to allow
the rebel flag to sleep in peace 1t does not
propose that the bloody shirt shall rest in the
graves with which the country ridged by
treason and rebellion. It does not propose
that the present or the future people of the
South shall come to think and acknowledge
that their splendid bravery and their stern
endurance were expended in a mistaken
cause, and that they should let the past bury
itself, far may be, and with new
| thoughts, new impulses, and new purposes.
| with the people of all the States so hand
| in hand to the perfection of a homogeneous
| and united nation. This the South does not
propose and will not have. It continues to
| faunt the rebel flag in the face of the people,
and to wave the bloody shirt in token that
the 'cause' of the South was just and holy,
and the "cause" of the North. or of the gov
| ernment was unjust and tyrannous. So
long as the South elects to place itself in
this attitude, the men and the States that
stood together for loyalty, for the Union, for
| the government, during the years when the
''cause" was being '.vindicated' by arms
and by bayonets, must stand together
hinchingly when it is to be ''vindicated" by
reversed public sentiment and by ballots. It
| is the South that waves the rebel flag and
the bloody shirt; but the North is not afraid
| Of them, and is not too cowardly to accept
the contest the South invites The next
campaign will show the people of the South,
we think, that if a ''oloody shirt" issue be
insisted upon, the North will be found on
| the old lines. It is folly to talk about any
thing else when the people of the South
count the blood shed in the war Of the re-
bellion an unholy thing. and propose to 'fvin-
dicate' and to Justify" the "cause" for
which the attempt was made to disrupt the
| government and dismember the Nation.